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Review - Vornado v103 Fan

The folks over at Vornado asked us if we would review a v103 Under Cabinet Air Circulator. You know, we just can't help saying that without using the Marvin the Martian voice - LOL. It's just too close to being the "Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator". Anyway, we said we'd love to, so they sent one right out to us.

It arrived yesterday via UPS and we unpacked it like kids at Christmas (OK, Jerry did but he really likes new toys for the RV). First impression is that it is a quality product. It looks great, has a sturdy feel to it and appears to have very good switches and hinges on it. It seemed a tad heavy and in an RV, weight is almost always an issue. Cynthia doesn't allow a scale in the house so we couldn't weigh it but the Vornado web site says it is 2.32 pounds.

It is very compact and we really like how the power cord is hidden in the mounting base. After carefully looking it over, opening and closing it numerous times, reeling the 6' cord in and out, we could only see one potential weakness. Once the fan is mounted, you can aim the fan up or down, from the closed position to 90 degrees. It will stay open at any point in between. We're worried that over time it will lose that ability to stay partially open and simply be all the way open or all the way closed. Only time will tell but with a hefty 5 year warranty, we don't think it will be an issue.

The fan requires a few simple tools to install... a pencil to mark the hole positions (a template is provided), a drill with a 7/32" bit and a cross-tip screwdriver. We hit a snag during our installation, and it could be a big one for some. To mount the fan, you drill holes in the underside of your cabinet then drop the screws into the holes from the top. You then hold the fan up to the screws then tighten them into the fan. Every single cabinet in our camper, and likely many others, are double layered. This means there is a wood panel as the bottom of the cabinet that your dishes sit on, then you have about an inch of space, then another panel that is the bottom of the cabinet you see from underneath. If you have single layer cabinet bottoms, then you'll fine.

To mount the fan, we taped the template into place and drilled holes through both layers of the cabinet bottom. We then used a larger bit to make the upper holes big enough to drop the screw heads through. If you count the time it took to get the tools out and put them away afterwards, total install time was about 10 minutes. I'm fairly handy so it may take someone else an extra 5. :)

Note: The larger holes in the upper layer are covered by the "slip stop" rubber matting we use to hold dishes in place so it really was a non-issue to us.

Once the fan was securely mounted, we reeled out enough cord to reach the nearest outlet and plugged it in. We used the supplied adhesive backed cord restraint to fasten the cord against the wall. We lowered the fan and turned it on high... ahhh, brrr! It is still January and the temperature isn't quite up to where we'd like it to be. We switched it to low and it was surprisingly quiet. We like white noise when we sleep and this will be ideal. We love the way the fan can be swiveled to point any direction we need it. To see photos of the v103 installed, click these: 01, 02, 03.

Aside from the issue we encountered during installation, we really like this fan. We took down the little 12v fan we had and will use the new Vornado through the inverter when boondocking. According to our Kill-A-Watt Monitor, on low it draws .26 amps / 19 watts. On high it draws .35 amps / 28 watts. Not too shabby. If it wasn't for the mounting issue and the fact it is not 12v, we would have given the Vornado v103 a solid 5 stars.

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